This invention relates to a tube for direct intestinal feeding. Broadly speaking, the present invention provides a device suitable for providing either nutrition or medication directly to the intestine. The present invention is particularly suitable in cases where nutrition or medication must be supplied frequently over some extended period of time, such as in the case of any patient who has become anorexic due to disease or treatment or one who cannot eat or swallow effectively due to a mechanical or physical handicap.
Known methods of providing nutrition or medication include gastrostomy feeding wherein a feeding tube is implanted directly through the abdominal and stomach wall. The tube, in turn, is sutured to the stomach wall and the stomach wall is, in turn, sutured to the abdominal wall to hold the device in place and prevent the tube from slipping out of the stomach area.
A major problem with gastrostomy feeding is that leakage of digestive juices such as acids and enzymes often occurs around the tube from the stomach to the surrounding skin area; thus, digesting tissue in that area and causing damage, pain, and soilage of clothing.
It is therefore desirable to provide nutrition or medication directly to the small intestine and thus bypass the stomach.
Initial attempts to provide such direct nutrition or medication were to utilize a straight tube, such as a Foley catheter made for urinary bladder drainage and implant it directly into the intestine. The intestine was sutured around the tube to hold the tube in place. Since sutures could not be placed directly through the feeding tube itself, the balloon tip within the intestine is inflated to prevent it from falling out. Further, the intestinal wall is sutured around the tube and the resultant friction between the tube and the intestine is all that holds the tube in place to prevent it from being pulled in by intestinal function. These jerry-rigged tubes are relatively stiff, uncomfortable, and difficult to conceal under clothing. Like gastrostomy tubes, they also leak and cause skin irritation, pain and soilage.
Additionally, if the balloon tip is too large, it can produce blockage causing pain and vomiting. The balloon is quickly digested, causing these tubes to fall out during which time the hole can close, requiring another operative procedure to replace it.